Have you ever seen a Monkey Hand Tree in person?

Chiranthodendron pentadactylon http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/66985/ is currently in bloom in a small park in the Niles district of Fremont.
It is at the bend on Montecito Drive http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=niles%20community%20park,%2094536&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.624204,70.3125&ie=UTF8&ll=37.573022,-121.991646&spn=0.001528,0.002146&t=h&z=19 Looking from the street toward the back of the park, you will see a walkway on the left. The tree is the about 20 ft to the right of the walkway and about 40 ft in. I have been away for 3 weeks and missed the opening buds, but it is quite loaded right now.
If you are nearby, it is a pretty rare sight. You can also stop by the Adobe Nursery to pick up some half price plants (still sorta of expensive, even at 1/2 price.) They are closing soon and have a fairly limited supply. http://davesgarden.com/products/go/view/467/

I may have to drive down and see it--I have a baby Chiranthodendron but it's probably nowhere near big enough to bloom so it would be really cool to see one in person (since chances are I'll kill mine before it gets big enough to bloom)! And a 1/2 off sale at a nursery is too good to pass up too!

oh darn it, just saw this and we were in Fremont yesterday !!! (bought a new van, mine has been driven into the ground)

Thank you for sharing, tho it is quite exquisite. How big is this tree?

Nope!, and W"O"W!
WIB!
SW

I made it over there on Saturday--very cool tree! If I get around to getting the pics off my camera anytime soon I will post them (ever since I got the memory card that holds 4000 pics I have been very lazy about downloading the pics to the computer!) Of course I stopped at Adobe nursery & Regans while I was over there--good excuse to go to some nurseries I don't usually get to!